The present invention relates to apparatus for accumulating and transporting stacks of paper sheets and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for transporting sheet-like commodities, especially stacks of overlapping paper sheets, which are accumulated on a support and are to be transferred onto conveyor means for delivery to a further processing station, for example, to a hoop-casing machine which provides the stacks with straps to ensure that the constituents of the stacks cannot be shifted relative to each other.
Swiss Pat. No. 496,574 discloses an apparatus wherein stacks are accumulated on a support and can be transferred from the support onto a conveyor by a vertically extending rod-like pusher which is reciprocable by a pneumatic cylinder and piston unit along a predetermined path a portion of which extends across the support and which terminates sufficiently close to the conveyor so that the latter can accept and advance a stack which has been delivered thereto by the oncoming pusher. A drawback of the patented apparatus is that each portion of the pusher invariably remains in its path so that it moves across the space wherein the support accumulates successive stacks during movement toward as well as during movement away from the conveyor. This prevents the support from beginning with the accumulation of a fresh stack already during return movement of the pusher to its starting position preparatory to transfer of a freshly gathered stack from the support onto the conveyor. In fact, the piston rod of the cylinder and piston unit which is used to reciprocate the pusher extends across the support (such as a table) at all times except when the pusher has reassumed its starting position.